

By Douglas Pratt Pratt@moviecitynews.com
Couples Retreat
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There are, fortunately, a number of secondary players in Couples Retreat, a Universal release, who are funny in a classic, movie bit part sort of way, including Jean Reno, Peter Serafinowicz, Carlos Ponce, and Temuera Morrison, and between them and the Bora Bora location shooting, the 2009 film is not a complete waste of time, but it nearly is. The script is generally illogical and strained, and while the film is ostensibly a romantic comedy, there is very little romance in it that you actually believe. Vince Vaughn, Malin Akerman, Jon Favreau, Kristen Davis, Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell, Faison Loveand Kali Hawk are friends who get a group rate on what they think is going to be a regular resort but what turns out to have an intense couples therapy component, which they all end up taking advantage of, despite themselves. Reno and company play the therapists and resort personnel they come into conflict with. In theory, it’s a great idea, but in execution, it is awkward and unimaginative. At one point, there is a major confrontation where two characters face off against each other in a Guitar Hero competition that goes on, and on, and on. Really, is there anything less exciting than watching movie characters on a screen play Guitar Hero for more than a moment or two? And at the end, the leader of the camp distributes ‘totems,’ as indications that the characters have come to understand their true selves. There is one problem though. Only the men receive the totems. It’s like the women didn’t count.
The picture is presented in letterboxed format only, with an aspect ratio of about 1.85:1 and an accommodation for enhanced 16:9 playback. The colors are bright and sharp. The 5.1-channel Dolby Digital sound has a functional dimensionality. The 114 minute program has alternate French and Spanish tracks in 5.1 Dolby, optional English, French and Spanish subtitles, a 3-minuite blooper reel, 10 minutes of promotional featurettes, and a decent 20 minutes of deleted, extended and alternate scenes, including an ending that would have made one ending too many. Vaughn and director Peter Billingsley provide a commentary track over those scenes and the film, sharing a bit about putting the production together and working with the performers, but also talking a lot about what is happening on the screen. Billingsley erases forever the innocence of his Ralphie persona during the final credit scroll. “At the very end, there’s one last scene, a little thing we did about the Federal Reserve. A lot of American patriots are tired of standing by idly and are speaking up about the Fed.”
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